As its position sank lower and lower, its limbs nearly touching the seawater, the Evil Beast suddenly let out another shrill, insect-like cry.
Then it abandoned its shield. Braving the assault of thousands of falling meteors, its body collapsed inward and spun, transforming itself into a rotating black-red vortex before vanishing.
Everyone immediately searched in all directions for where the Evil Beast had gone. Then, in the night directly above Shade's head, a brand-new narrow rift slanted downward. As it opened, that strange starry world filled with black-red stars appeared once again.
Miss Eisberg suddenly understood:
"The starry world we were in just now was a Fragment of the Astral Realm!"
The massive monster flew out from the rift, its six walking limbs reaching directly for Shade below. But when the human-hand-like bone claws at the ends of those limbs closed, it discovered that it had only caught the patch of moonlight reflected in the water.
Realizing the danger, it tried to flee back into the Astral Realm Fragment. But the moment the rift opened, it immediately closed again. Dorothy was casting a spell aboard the Radiance Messenger, with Grace and Helen standing beside her.
Before the enormous Silver Moon at the meeting point of sea and sky, Ellie carried Shade upward in bounding leaps. The Moon behind them also followed Shade into the night sky.
Moonlight soaked into Ellie's fur. She liked that cool, gentle power. Realizing that Shade had finished gathering strength, the Unicorn wanted to help him as well. Thus, under Little Unicorn's innocent blending, the mighty power of time she had felt tonight, the gentleness of moonlight, and the splendor of the stars all gathered upon her horn.
The glowing cat on Shade's shoulder then saw the light bursting from that horn join the starlight Shade